US House Passes Two-Year Budget, Debt-Limit Plan, Sends To Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., (second from left) holds a news conference in Washington, Oct. 27, 2015. Joining McConnell at the podium are (from left), Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas. A U.S. budget and debt ceiling deal headed toward quick action in Congress on Tuesday as lawmakers rushed to avert yet another fiscal standoff. Photo: Gary Cameron/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a sweeping two-year budget deal that averts a debt-limit default and clears away some contentious fiscal deadlines for the prospective new House Speaker, Paul Ryan.

The vote sends the measure to the Senate for consideration later this week.

The deal extends the federal debt limit through March 2017 and eases automatic spending caps to add $80 billion in new discretionary spending over two years, split evenly between the military and non-defense programs. It also avoids a spike in Medicare non-hospital premiums and contains the first major reforms to Social Security disability insurance since 1983.